America's War for Humanity Part 41

"Then we went west, while they went east. Just a bit later we heard the thunder of the enemy's guns for a s.p.a.ce. Then fell silence, and we knew that was all.

A MARVELOUS RESCUE

"The most romantic, dramatic, and piquant episode that modern war can ever show came next. The Defender, having sunk an enemy, lowered a whaler to pick up its swimming survivors. Before the whaler got back, an enemy's cruiser came up and chased the Defender, which thus had to abandon its small boat.

"Imagine their feelings, alone in an open boat without food, twenty-five miles from the nearest land, and that land an enemy's fortress, with nothing but fog and foes around them, and then suddenly a swirl alongside, and up, if you please, hops His Britannic Majesty's submarine E-4, opens its conning tower, takes them all on board, shuts up again, dives and brings them home, 250 miles."

THREE BRITISH CRUISERS SUNK

On Tuesday morning, September 22, the British cruisers Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue were torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea. Each of the vessels carried a crew of about 650 men, and the total of the death roll was about 1,400.

The three cruisers had for some time been patrolling the North Sea. Soon after 6 o'clock in the morning the Aboukir suddenly felt a shock on the port side. A dull explosion was heard and a column of water was thrown up mast high. The explosion wrecked the stokehold just forward of amidships: and tore the bottom open.

Almost immediately the doomed cruiser began to settle. Except for the watch on deck, most of the crew were asleep, wearied by the constant vigil in bad weather, but in perfect order the officers and men rushed to quarters. The quick-firers were manned in the hope of a dying shot at the submarine, but there was not a glimpse of one.

Meanwhile the Aboukir's sister cruisers, more than a mile away, saw and heard the explosion and thought the Aboukir had struck a mine. They closed in and lowered boats. This sealed their own fate, for, while they were standing by to rescue survivors, first the Hogue and then the Cressy was torpedoed.

Only the Cressy appears to have seen the submarine in time to attempt to retaliate, and she fired a few shots before she keeled over, broken in two, and sank.

British naval officers by this time were beginning to wonder how long the German high seas fleet intended to remain under cover in the Kiel ca.n.a.l.

"Our only grievance," one said, "is that we have not had a shot at the Germans. Our only share of the war has been a few uncomfortable weeks of bad weather, mines and submarines."

A number of the survivors were taken to the Dutch port of Ymuiden, where they were interned as technical prisoners of war.

THE GERMAN COMMANDER'S STORY

The German submarine which accomplished the hitherto unparalleled feat was the U-9, in command of Capt.-Lieut. Otto Weddigen, whose interesting story was given to the public through the German Admiralty on October 6, as follows:

"I set out from a North Sea port on one of the arms of the Kiel ca.n.a.l and set my course in a southwesterly direction. The name of the port I cannot state officially, but it was not many days before the morning of September 22 when I fell in with my quarry.

"British torpedo-boats came within my reach, but I felt there was bigger game further on, so on I went. It was ten minutes after six in the morning of the 22nd when I caught sight of one of the big cruisers of the enemy.

"I was then eighteen sea miles northwesterly of the Hook of Holland. I had traveled considerably more than 200 miles from my base. I had been going ahead partially submerged, with about five feet of my periscope showing.

"Almost immediately I caught sight of the first cruiser and two others.

I submerged completely and laid my course in order to bring up in center of the trio, which held a sort of triangular formation. I could see their gray-black sides riding high over the water.

"When I first sighted them they were near enough for torpedo work, but I wanted to make my aim sure, so I went down and in on them. I had taken the position of the three ships before submerging, and I succeeded in getting another flash through my periscope before I began action. I soon reached what I regarded as a good shooting point.

"Then I loosed one of my torpedoes at the middle ship. I was then about twelve feet under water and got the shot off in good shape, my men handling the boat as if it had been a skiff. I climbed to the surface to get a sight through my tube of the effect and discovered that the shot had gone straight and true, striking the ship, which I later learned was the Aboukir, under one of its magazines, which in exploding helped the torpedo's work of destruction.

"There was a fountain of water, a burst of smoke, a flash of fire, and part of the cruiser rose in the air.

STRIKES THE SECOND CRUISER

"Its crew were brave and, even with death staring them in the face, kept to their posts. I submerged at once. But I had stayed on top long enough to see the other cruisers, which I learned were the Cressy and the Hogue, turn and steam full speed to their dying sister.

"As I reached my torpedo depth I sent a second charge at the nearest of the oncoming vessels, which was the Hogue. The English were playing my game, for I had scarcely to move out of my position, which was a great aid, since it helped to keep me from detection.

"The attack on the Hogue went true. But this time I did not have the advantageous aid of having the torpedo detonate under the magazine, so for twenty minutes the Hogue lay wounded and helpless on the surface before it heaved, half turned over, and sank.

"By this time the third cruiser knew, of course, that the enemy was upon it, and it sought as best it could to defend itself. It loosed its torpedo defense batteries on bows, star-board, and port, and stood its ground as if more anxious to help the many sailors in the water than to save itself.

"In the common method of defending itself against a submarine attack, it steamed in a zigzag course, and this made it necessary for me to hold my torpedoes until I could lay a true course for them, which also made it necessary for me to get nearer to the Cressy.

"I had to come to the surface for a view, and saw how wildly the fire was being sent from the ship. Small wonder that was when they did not know where to shoot, although one shot went unpleasantly near us.

"When I got within suitable range I sent away my third attack. This time I sent a second torpedo after the first to make the strike doubly certain. My crew were aiming like sharpshooters and both torpedoes went to their bull's-eye. My luck was with me again, for the enemy was made useless and at once began sinking by the head. Then it careened far over, but all the while its men stayed at the guns looking for their invisible foe.

"They were brave and true to their country's sea traditions. Then it eventually suffered a boiler explosion and completely turned turtle.

With its keel uppermost it floated until the air got out from under it and then it sank with a loud sound, as if from a creature in pain.

"The whole affair had taken less than one hour from the time of shooting off the first torpedo until the Cressy went to the bottom.

"I set my course for home. Before I got far some British cruisers and destroyers were on the spot and the destroyers took up the chase.

"I kept under water most of the way, but managed to get off a wireless to the German fleet that I was heading homeward and being pursued. But although British destroyers saw me plainly at dusk on the 22d and made a final effort to stop me, they abandoned the attempt, as it was taking them too far from safety and needlessly exposing them to attack from our fleet and submarines."

MERCHANTMEN CAPTURED AND SUNK

During the first months of the war a large number of merchant vessels, princ.i.p.ally German and British, were captured or sunk. According to a British Admiralty return, issued September 28, twelve British ships with an aggregate tonnage of 59,331 tons had been sunk on the high seas by German cruisers up to September 23. Eight other British ships, whose tonnage aggregated 2,970, had been sunk by German mines in the North Sea, and 24 fishing craft, with a tonnage of 4,334, had been captured or sunk by the Germans in the same waters. British ships detained at German ports numbered 74, with a total tonnage of 170,000.

On the other side the Admiralty reported 102 German ships, with a total tonnage of 200,000, detained in British ports since the outbreak of the war; while 88 German ships, of an aggregate tonnage of 338,000, had been captured since hostilities began.

The return also showed that 168 German ships, with an aggregate tonnage of 283,000, had been detained or captured by the Allies. Fifteen ships, with a tonnage of 247,000, were detained in American ports, while fourteen others, with a tonnage of 72,000, remained in the Suez Ca.n.a.l.

The German mines in the North Sea had also destroyed seven Scandinavian ships, with a tonnage of 11,098.

GERMAN CRUISERS ACTIVE

Several German cruisers were amazingly active in distant waters early in the war. Among these were the Goeben, Breslau, Emden, Karlsruhe, and Leipzig, which captured or sank a number of vessels of the enemy. The German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau also operated in the Pacific, bombarding the French colony of Papeete, on the island of Tahiti, and inflicting much damage, including the sinking of two vessels.

On August 26 the big converted German liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, while cruising on the northwest coast of Africa, was sunk by the British cruiser Highflyer.

The German cruiser Dresden was reported sunk by British cruisers in South American waters in the second week of September. The Emden, operating under the German flag in the Indian Ocean, sank several British steamers. Several Austrian vessels succ.u.mbed to mines off the coast of Dalmatia and in the Baltic there were a number of casualties in which both Russian and German cruisers suffered. The Russian armored cruiser Bayan was sunk in a fight near the entrance to the Gulf of Finland.

On September 20 the German protected cruiser Koenigsberg attacked the British light cruiser Pegasus in the harbor of Zanzibar and disabled her. Off the east coast of South America the British auxiliary cruiser Carmania, a former Cunard liner, destroyed a German merchant cruiser mounting eight four-inch guns. About the same time the German cruiser Hela was sunk in the North Sea by the British submarine E-9. The Kronprinz Wilhelm, a former German liner, which had been supplying coal to German cruisers in the Atlantic, was also sunk by the British.

GERMAN COLONY OCCUPIED

The British Admiralty announced on September 12 that the Australian fleet had occupied Herbertshoehe, on Blanche Bay, the seat of government of the German Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands.

The Bismarck Archipelago, with an area of 18,000 square miles and a population of 200,000, is off the north coast of Australia and southwest of the Philippine Islands. The group was a.s.signed to the German sphere of influence by an agreement with Great Britain in 1885. German New Guinea was included in the jurisdiction.

GERMANS SINK RUSS CRUISER

On October 11 German submarines in the Baltic torpedoed and sank the Russian armored cruiser Pallada with all its crew, numbering 568 men.